[Introduction to the round table discussion on intermediate uveitis]

Intermediary uveitis is one of the most mysterious and difficult to treat among all inflammations of the eye. From a recent statistic stemming from 2 different series of 20 cases of our patients, the following data have been found: all cases seen after 4 years of evolution are still evolutive; with 8 years follow-up, 42% are still evolutive. Recent findings supplied with the help of angiofluorophotometry give interesting details concerning the physiopathology of the disease. So, the leakage through the hemato-ocular barriers would appear not only as the result of a defect in anterior or posterior barrier but a defect of the entire barrier. Even after the clinical healing of the disease, the barrier remains often permeable. Therefore, the prolongation of the evolution of an intermediary uveitis may be the consequence of not necessarily an immune process but of a definitive anatomic sequellae.